You’ve seen the movie, now read the book on D-Day

After seeing the movie "Saving Private Ryan" not once but twice, I wanted to
know more about D-Day. The answer turned up almost immediately as I was
browsing in a local bookstore: "The Longest Day" by the late Cornelius Ryan
(no relation to the Ryan being sought in the movie).

No, Cornelius Ryan the author was a native of Ireland who became an Air
Force pilot and war correspondent covering the D-Day landings and the
advance of General Patton’s Third Army across France and Germany. Ryan went
on to publish books, magazine pieces, plays, screenplays and radio and TV
scripts. "The Longest Day" was originally published in 1959 and has since
been reprinted several times. The edition I read, new typos and all, was
published by Simon and Schuster in 1994.

Ryan was a good storyteller and his history book is hard to put down. Unlike
the movie, this book gives the reader a slightly bigger picture of what
happened in the hours leading up to and during June 6, 1944.
We find out, for instance, that the Dog Green Sector of Omaha Beach (where
the action in the movie took place) was heavily defended by the Germans, but
that some Allied troops landing on nearby beaches met hardly any resistance
at all.

The German "Atlantic wall" defense was spotty and unfinished and the German
command was very slow to react to news of the invasion even though this was
an event they had long been expecting. Hitler knew the invasion was
inevitable, but he also feared spreading his troops too thin and neglecting
other fronts.

One reason for the initial failure to respond when the invasion finally did
take place was the absence of a key officer. Field Marshal Rommel was not in
France on D-Day. He left 48 hours earlier to drive to Germany on two
errands. One, he wanted to see Hitler and firm up advance plans for the
invasion’s counterattack. And he also wanted to see his wife. He was
bringing her a pair of handmade gray suede shoes as a gift, for June 6 was
her birthday.

The Germans couldn’t be faulted for not figuring out in advance exactly when
the invasion would take place. General Eisenhower himself, the Supreme
Allied Commander, had to make that decision and no day in June met all the
requirements he had in mind. Beyond the logistics of men and machines,
Eisenhower had to worry about something he could not control: the weather.
He needed a dark night, a late-rising moon and, shortly after dawn, a low
tide. British and American paratroopers and glider-born infantry needed
darkness for the surprise attack and moonlight for safe landings. The
seaborne landings had to take place when the tide was low enough to expose
Rommel’s beach obstacles and mines and troops much later in the day also
would need a low tide before dark.

Tide alone reduced the number of days for the attack in any one month to six
and three of those were moonless. He also preferred a calm sea, low winds
and three relatively clear days after the landing to build up men and
supplies. Finally, there was no one night that gave Eisenhower everything he
wanted for a successful invasion. He delayed D-Day once, then gave the go
order for June 6.

A 60-year-old French schoolmistress in a village 27 miles from Cherbourg
might have been the first to see an American paratrooper land in Normandy.
Private Robert M. Murphy landed in Madame Levrault’s back garden as she was
on her way to the outhouse at 12:15 a.m. on June 6, 1944. Murphy, the
18-year-old paratrooper, was tall and thin and had warpaint on his face. He
appeared weighted down with equipment. Before he disappeared from the old
lady’s view, he put a finger to his lips in a gesture of silence. She
watched in terror, unable to move or make a sound.

Coded messages about the invasion were sent to the French resistance and
these were intercepted by the Germans. But again, key parts of the German
command failed to react in a timely manner. There had been so many false
alarms in the past that everyone was painfully cautious – and a key report
activating the Germans failed to reach the Seventh Army in Normandy. The
tanks and planes Rommel needed were delayed and this cost Germany the war.

Had Rommel been in charge, the outcome of the war might have been quite
different, for he knew that the invasion would be decisive, one way or the
other. In April, only a few weeks before D-Day, he told an aide: "The first
24 hours of the invasion will be decisive...the fate of Germany depends on
the outcome...for the Allies as well as Germany it will be the longest day."

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